Joplin Wins 200th Game

The Toledo Rockets improved to 5-6 in conference play and 8-15 on the season with a dramatic come from behind win over the Ohio Bobcats at Savage Hall in Toledo on Wednesday night. Tyrone Kent and Jerrah Young led the Rockets scorers with 13 points apiece. It's Stan Joplin's 200th win as the Rockets head basketball coach.

TOLEDO -- Toledo (8-15,5-6 MAC) pushed its conference home win streak up to 19 games with a dramatic come from behind 54-52 win against the Ohio Bobcats (16-8, 7-4 MAC) on Wednesday night at Savage Hall in Toledo. Upperclassmen Jerrah Young and Tyrone Kent led Rocket scorers with 13 points apiece.

It is head coach Stan Joplin's 200th win as the head of the Rockets program.

"It was a classic game where if we can defend and rebound you can win a game," said Joplin, who's already turned his focus to win No. 201 this Sunday. "I don’t think we can play better defensively and we did a very good job on the boards. I have to give our players a lot of credit and our energy was good. Our players stayed positive and our offense finally started clicking.”

Over the opening 20 minutes, it looked as if the Rockets home win streak against MAC opponents was ready to come to an end. Shooting 0-for-10 from behind the three-point arc, and just 27.8% from the floor, Joplin and his Rockets dug themselves into a 28-16 hole through the intermission.

Ohio University, on the other hand, opened the contest red hot, 4-of-7 from downtown.

"We knew we had to keep playing strong defensively. We knew our shots would start to fall and we had to keep playing strong defense,” said Rocket guard Tyrone Kent, who finished tied with a Rocket-high of 13 points.

The shots did start falling in the second half. Three-ball's from Kent, Ridley Johnson and Anthony Byrd helped the Rockets claw back within four at 31-27 just five minutes into the second half.

The teams exchanged buckets until Ohio rebuilt the lead back to 10 points with 6:43 to go, but then the Rockets stepped on the accelerator.

Tyrone Kent stuffed home a dunk to trim the lead to 45-37 with 5:43 to go. Just 40 seconds later Ridley Johnson trimmed to lead to six with a pair of UT free throws. Anthony Byrd came up with a steal, and Jerrah Young's dunk with 4:44 to go had the Rockets back within four points for the first time since early in the half.

“I don’t know what to say. We’re at home and we’re just used to winning. We don’t get rattled at home and we make plays at the end of the game," said Jonathan Amos who finished with 11 points and 5 assists.

Almost two minutes later, following a pair of free throws from Boyd and Young, the teams were all square at 45-45.

The teams exchanged baskets setting up the first Rockets lead of the half, but after Toledo went up 48-47 with 1:23 to play, Bobcat long-range specialist Bubba Walther connected on his fifth triple of the contest to give the lead back to the visiting team.

“We just knew they would answer us back and Bubba Walther hit a big shot. We just tried to regain our composure and we knew we were in the double bonus so we tried to attack the rim and get the double bonus,” Amos continued.

Toledo trimmed the lead to two points with just under a minute remaining, and after a 30-second time out, the Rockets got the ball back with an Ohio offensive foul to set up the game-tying score.

After then intercepting the inbounds pass, Tyrone Kent gave UT the lead for good with a pair of free throws with 8.8 seconds left on the clock.

The Toledo Rockets improve to 5-6 in conference play with the win. The Rockets next scheduled contest is against Ball State on Sunday afternoon in Muncie, Ind at 2:00.